All I Can Hear are the Crickets

Jonathan Baron

Jonathan Baron

New member
Dang it's gotten quiet in here. Something's got to be happening. Dave, is that cover job getting any easier? Lynn, any new and crappy strobes? Some fella, Cobra180kts, is looking for....well...180kts, though I doubt he'll see it without a good tailwind in a triple tail taildragger. Lynn, does it still look like John Laser will be your passenger to Antique Airfield?

Frank, any recent vids? Yeah, I know I got a mite mean not long ago, but it was a too damned emotional time. Randy, did you find a 'Master to build up into a Guiseppe rocket? Merritt: any luck finding a buyer for your nifty Cruisair? 'Bones, you still flying or are you forgoing meat to keep avgas in your Bellanca?

All we've got is what we do. The world's gone unusually nuts, and I'm sick of the news using the middle names of every sicko killer out there. Time to fly :)

Jonathan
 
Jonathan, my strobe was finally fixed with an old Whelen from :p e-bay that I managed to repair. E-bay is a real risk! I'm constantly trying to improve and repair the crate. I got old gyros in the bird and would like some better reliablity so I'm trying to address that. No joy if going solid! John Lazar is not my passenger to Blakesburg BUT he is driving to Blakesburg to meet me and his old crate Wed, Thur then to see an old friend of his in SD. He and his wife Rose met me again at OSH this year. 4 yrs in a row! I laugh he says he sold it to me to cheap, I say I paid enough and he just smiles. Ok John L. you can have it back for 50k. When I'm ready to sell that is. Getting ready for the trip to Heaven Blakesburg. LYNN :D
 
Have not found any takers just yet. Plenty of tire kickers, but not much else. I have been flying the hell out of the 170 since I brought it home. My dad keeps exercising the Bellanca for me, but I hope we can move it before too long, they are too nice of an airplane to not be enjoyed by somebody. Wood and fabric must scare too many people, but for the price you can't get any more performace, you'd think people would be more savy to them with the fuel prices and what not, but I'm only paying 3.25/gal here, so maybe things are coming back to reality elsewhere.

BUY MY AIRPLANE, I'm not in it for the money, just want to see it go to a good home

How's that for a little advertising?
 
Dear Jonathan & Bellancaophiles:
Well just to make coversation, last Sunday I needed to be three places at once so I proceeded to borrow a C-182, but the owner was going to use it, so I bummed a 160hp Supercub with Tundra tires (to fly from Drigggs to Salmon ID all blacktop of course) I bought $102 woth of avgas to grind 125 nautical & return & saw the airspeed hit 92mph on the GPS once......motivation to get my 14-13-2 done & flying....would have been 2.2hrs instead of 4.
I have signed up with "Buildaplane" (buildaplane.org) to build my plane with teenagers. Did that last year, & will start again soon. I have an aviation curriculum worked out.....but the local Highschool will only let kids come for one hour each day....which means we get nothing done. I have asked for 2 afternoons a week for the kids that need it the most (to do hands on stuff instead of staring at a blackboard) but since I have no teacher's credential The "No child left behind" prevents me from teaching any class they give credit for. (I have a stinkin' masters degree, which ought to count for something). I will carry one best I can, I am putting an ad in the paper advertizing it for homeschoolers & private school kids.
I am ready to cover the fuselage, but have been goofing around trying to find an aux tank & dual brake set up....Time to forget that & "get her done"
If any of you guys have Cruisair part left over you want to sell cheap or donate let me know.
Bellanca things I need more input on:
1. more input on the possibility of the FAA making an orphaned airplane category. what stipulations would you like to see to make you happy with it. (Ahhh yes a fuel totalizer with out 2 years of paperwork,...could it really happen?
2. Is there any advantage to having a 165 hp over the 150 Frank in a Cruisair.
3. I found a supposedly low time 165hp that hasn't flown for 20 years....could I top it & run it.....or stay away?
4. I have a line on an electric gear setup.....is it worth fiddling with?
5. Instead of building up a gyro panel for my Cruisair I am thinking of only putting in an electric turn & bank & installling a Garmin 196 or 296 which has a gps based HSI that I have flown "blind" as good as I can a gyro panel. Comments?
6. Is the electric fuelpump mod worth building up.....the idea of pumping that hand pump 30 strokes a minute while on final approach seems absurd?????
7 has anyone tried to sneak some small projector beam type lamps onto the landing gear to make a landing light?
Thanks Ken
 
Ken:

Indeed, the irony of government is often lost on many. "No Child Left Behind," is a prime example, particularly when it means "No Child Can Build an Airplane." Whatever became of the Air Scouts? I seem to recall something akin to it in Oh Canada involving sail planes.

I have seen a llighting setup involving the landing gear in a triple tail. It involved installing lights in the aft cones of a wheel faring mod. As you say though, one of the most tempting yet destructive tricks played upon the minds of aircraft owners - especially restorers - is the near irresistable urge to focus on refinements that have nothing do do with flight. It begins with a dangerous thought: "While I have the airplane apart, I might as well...."

My advice FWIW, is to separate core matters from desirable ones. I'd define core issues as:

1. Corrosion

2. Control - pulles, cables, and the like.

3. Electrical - oh would we all love to be able to tear out that ancient wire, install fresh wiring, and setup a simple double buss system (the Cessna 172 is an excellent guide) with breakers arranged orderly and nary a fuse left.

4. VFR instruments. As you all know, this tends to be a plumbing mess and takes a Liliputian to work on. During restoration is perhaps the ONLY time to clean this stuff up. You mentioned electronic alternatives....more on that later.

Desirable:

1. Electric fuel pump. I have one but I've never HAD to use it. Oh, I use it to pump up the fuel pressure prior to the first start of the day, but the wobble pump works just fine. The thing is you CAN ADD IT LATER :)

2. Gear actuation. As you know, I've not been blessed with luck in this area. If you have a line on something (your electric gear system) it usually means you can find something that also needs to be rebuilt along with your airplane. IMO this moves from Desirable to Core if, say, you have a bad shoulder. If you've got crap for the original crank system....again this wanders into gray areas.

3. Panel Upgrades. When you do the rewiring, leave room, close it off with a panel plate, provide wiring tied off and hooked to a player-to-be-named-later circuit breaker, and move along.

4. Glass panels. Yes, to my abject astonishment I see that glass is STANDARD in the new Legend Cub. Non-fancy VFR glass, but GLASS in a CUB. The Garmin emergency gauge page is not a legal replacement for the basic VFR instruments.

That said that LCD cluster of engine instruments, seen for years on homebuilts, is approved for certificated aircraft...well...mostly. I'd make damned sure you can get them approved before I'd sub them.

Again I have no notion of the quality of that Franklin that has been stored for 20 years.

Merritt - alas, but it would take a combination of circumstances I cannot imagine to make our airplanes valued on the used market. Single engine retracts overall have lost value, especially Bananas, since 9/11 but it feels as if we're immune to both positive and negative larger market forces. Oy vey!

Lynn: John's driving? You, Lynn, had better be there regardless of means :wink:

Jonathan
 
Just a question, Merritt - what does a C170 have that a Cruisair does not? This is not a leading question. Just curious is all.

Jonathan
 
The 170 doesn't really have much over the Bellanca, the only thing it has is it has been in the family 35 years and I couldn't see it get sold to someone else. I came home from the hospital as a new born in it, so it's part of the family. It does have the 0-360 conversion which makes it quite the performer, but not quite bellanca speeds. Below 10,000' the Bellanca will stomp it pretty good, above 10,000' it's an even race, but I imagine that is only from due to the benefits of the constant speed prop. The 170 doesnt land near as nice, nor handle near as sharp.....but family is family, so I had to make the decision.

That being said, who do you guys use for insurance.....I'm about to start shopping quotes (I never insured the Bellanca), but not sure where to start. I have always used USAA for car insurance and was thinking of giving them first go, since I've always been so pleased with their service, but I heard they were pretty well in bed with USAIG and did not know how that would effect things.
 
That's a first for me, Merritt. I've heard the generational attachments, the personal history attachments, heck I know one fella who had his Luscombe totally restored at considerable expense because he soloed in it and it had belonged to his Dad. But being brought home in an airplane as a newborn....wow! You hit the hang-onto-this-bird trifecta :)

Insurance....oy. It comes town to this. Either you spend a hefty sum (e.g. Avemco) and get splendid service with few questions asked if something bad happens, or you can pay less than half that and get treated like a sinner in a southern Appalachan church (my mother endured this for going to the movies when she was a teenager...but I digress).

The high end insurance does not prorate your engine and prop if you suffer a prop strike. The high end folks let an item or two slide when they access airworthiness (you did know that a compass deviation card - even if it's blank - is a required airworthiness item, didn't you?).

It's not just a matter of getting what you pay for. I've done okay with cheaper insurance after my forced gear-up. This was a matter of luck (I have probably the freshest O-435 flying with all sorts of new (NOS) parts, ECi overhauled and cermi-nil treated cylinders, etc). My prop as well was a recent overhaul. Thus no prorating. What has driven me mad has been the manner in which I've been treated, the fact the company only cuts checks on Monday and Thursday, and so on. Okay it didn't help when I phoned them and said, "So, you abjectly refuse to honor your financial obligations five days out of every week?"

A great insurance broker for old airplanes is Butler Brown. They pitch a tent at Blakesburg if you'd like to chat with them (HINT!). :)

Or.....you can phone them at 800-934-7763, or web them at http://www.butlerbrownins.com. They offer a discount if you belong to the Antique Aircraft Association. Just drop by Blakesburg toward the end of next week ( :idea: :!: ) and sign up.

Jonathan
 
The crate is fueled, cleaned and loaded for Blakesburg, John Lazer phoned and canceled he has death in family. We plan to launch on Wed morn fog permitting. One stop a Plymouth Ind and GPS direct to Antique, 6 hr flying time We will be there Lord willin and the creek don't rise. LYNN N9818B
 
Sorry I was so mad at the way Jonathan was treated I said that I left Blakesburg Fri. NOOO it was late Saturday afternoon. The Fly in was great and it sure beats the Pober crap at Osh. Good people there and a grand time. LYNN :D :D N9818B
 
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